Just under 2 months ago, a guy died on the set of a music video in Brisbane.
The way it was reported though, coincidentally or not, linked the band whose video it was to the death. The band was Bliss n Eso. But from the reporting, you’d think they had something to do with it. A bunch of rappers, from Sydney, who’ve also been in the news before for joking about violence against women, involved in a shooting in an underground bar… Nothing new right? Wrong. It’s not the first music video that’s had guns (firing blanks) in it. And it was the result of a freak accident, but the guy who it happened to was Johann ‘Yogi’ Ofner. He had a girlfriend and a daughter, and he was also a stuntman. He would never have expected to die at work, but he must’ve always known it was a possibility. Homeboy wasn’t an accountant.
Bliss n Eso cancelled the original video and just released this version instead:
The song has now taken on a totally new meaning, and this video reminds me that all the shit, the crappy things that sometimes happen to you, all the things we think are struggles, all the little disagreements between you and the person (or people) you love, don’t matter shit in the end. Neil Strauss wrote a book called Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead. And it’s true. All those bullshit little things, arguments, misunderstandings, little fights… all that you’ll remember about the people you care about will be the good things. And when you go, they’ll do the same, it’s going to hurt them like hell and they’ll miss you like crazy. Realising that about the people you care about, while they’re still with you, shows you how much all those bullshit little things will really matter if they were gone forever.
Rappers get a bad rap (is that where the expression comes from?) but the video for Friend Like You is class. I don’t know anything about Johann Ofner, but the video gives me goosebumps and brings a tear to my eye every time. The things his mates say, his daughter on the decks with DJ Izm at the tribute show Bliss n Eso put on in Coolangatta to honour him (and then what she says right at the end), shows you that this dude was more than just some stuntman from the Gold Coast –this dude known as Yogi was loved and made people around him smile.